The present invention relates to an apparatus for removing textile articles from supported dispositions on the posts of support members, the textile articles being tubes or tubes having textile strand material built thereon.
Tubes of the type on which textile strand material is built typically have an elongate shape and a hollow interior. Numerous transport systems have been proposed for transporting such tubes with the tubes either in an empty status (no textile strand material thereon) or in a condition in which textile strand material has been built on the tube and several of these transport systems include support members each for individually supporting a tube in a separate disposition from the other tubes. The support members may be interconnected to one another for simultaneous advancing movement of the support members and one example of this type of transport system arrangement is a plurality of textile article support members mounted to a flexible endless member at uniform spacings therealong. Another transport system arrangement includes independently movable support members, each capable of individually supporting a tube in an upright disposition thereon, and a device for advancing the independent support members along a travel path. Both in those transport system arrangements in which the support members are interconnected together and those transport systems in which the support members are independently movable, the support members each include a cylindrical post having a diameter selected in relation to the inside diameter of the hollow interior of a tube for snug receipt of a tube inserted over the post of a support member.
At various stages during the processing of a textile article, the textile article, which may be an empty tube or a tube having textile strand material built thereon, must be removed from the support member on which it is supported and this textile article removal process necessarily includes axially moving the textile article along and beyond the post on which it is supported. Various textile article removal devices have been proposed. For example, in Japanese Patent Document 49-26531, a textile article removal device is disclosed for removing textile articles supported in upright dispositions on posts uniformly mounted along the extent of an endless belt. In this known textile article removal device, a pair of oppositely moving endless belts are disposed adjacent the travel path of the textile articles and the pair of oppositely moving endless belts form an opening therebetween.
As each supported textile article is advanced along the travel path to a position adjacent the opening, the post on which the textile article is supported is displaced in a direction transverse to the travel path to thereby effect movement of the supported textile article into the opening until the textile article is frictionally engaged at generally diametrically opposite locations by the pair of oppositely moving endless belts of the textile article removal device. The oppositely moving endless belts then draw the engaged textile article off the post on which it is supported with the advancing movement of the post being temporarily halted during the drawing off of the textile article. Following removal of the textile article from the post, the advancing movement of the other textile articles continues while the removed textile article is transported by the oppositely moving endless belts of the textile article removal device to a chute along which the textile article slides to a collection container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,636 to Sekitani et al discloses a textile article removing device operable to remove textile articles from support members of the type which are movable independently of one another. In this known textile article removal device, the individual support member on which each textile article is supported is temporarily stopped at a removal location and a pair of opposed engaging surfaces such as, for example, an endless belt and a roller, are moved toward one another to frictionally engage a supported textile article therebetween. Once frictionally engaged between the opposed engaging surfaces, the textile article is drawn off from its associated support member and the now-empty support member is subsequently advanced beyond the removal location.
In both of the known textile article removing devices just described, the advancing movement of the textile articles must be temporarily halted each time a support member is advanced into the removal location so that the respective textile article at the removal location can be frictionally engaged and drawn off of its associated support member. The start of a textile article removal operation must therefore be coordinated with the advancing movement of the textile articles in cycles of stopping and re-starting the advancing movement of the textile articles. This correspondingly limits the rate at which textile articles can be removed from their associated support members. Accordingly, the need still exists for improvements in the expeditious removal of textile articles from support members and particularly in minimizing interruptions in the advancing movement of textile articles during the removal operation.